Alabama’s COVID-19 positivity rate more than doubles in a week

It looks like Alabama will end 2021 with a sharp jump in its COVID-19 positivity rate. The State Department of Public Health says the percentage of people testing positive for the coronavirus jumped by over twenty percent in the last week. That’s more than a doubling of new COVID cases since last Tuesday. Data from Johns Hopkins goes farther than that, with Alabama’s COVID-19 caseload over the last two weeks has tripled. Researchers say the state is seeing over 1,700 new coronavirus patients per day. Healthcare providers are urging people to take precautions like wearing masks and getting booster shots. The Mobile County Health Department says fifty percent of tested COVID patients there have the omicron variant. All but six counties in Alabama are classified as having high levels of community transmission.